Some good answers here, let’s get a tiny bit more specific and ELI5.5 Your engine is a bunch of mechanically moving parts. If you yanked your engine out of the car and put a long bar connected to the back or front of the engine, you could manually make the internals move. (Breaker bar on the harmonic balancer or flywheel) From experience, a smaller engine is easier to do this with than a larger one because more surface area = more friction.
So… back to your question. If a car is in “D” then the transmission is in gear, meaning the wheels are connected to the engine internals physically through the transmission. When you are in P or N, the transmission separates the engine from the wheels physically. So if you are in D with the car off and you want the car to move – push it hard enough and it will. Or… use gravity by letting a few thousand pounds and an angle to work out the math for you. 😉
Now… ELI6, you may not actually be making the engine move as other people noted. An automatic car has a torque converter which is a fancy device filled with fluid. This plays the role of a clutch via fliusld pressure. At low speeds with the car off and in D, you are likely to only be spinning the fluid a bit. Either way – this isn’t particularly healthy for the car, so please don’t go around doing this intentionally unless you enjoy repair bills.
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